The regular season has ended for the power conferences, with conference tournaments set to begin on March 4, though some mid-major conferences still have games over the next week. The final week of regular-season action from the major teams featured a bit of a solidifying of who the elites are, as only one of the top 10 teams lost.
How will this be reflected in Monday's AP poll? Let's take a stab at predicting how the poll will look after a week that saw the top teams win, but that also saw only one team ranked between 14th and 25th pick up a win over a fellow ranked opponent.
Projected AP Top 25 women's college basketball rankings
- UConn
- UCLA
- South Carolina
- Texas
- Vanderbilt
- LSU
- Michigan
- Oklahoma
- Iowa
- TCU
- Ohio State
- Louisville
- Duke
- West Virginia
- Maryland
- Michigan State
- Kentucky
- North Carolina
- Minnesota
- Baylor
- Texas Tech
- Princeton
- Georgia
- Ole Miss
- Fairfield
Michigan enters Big Ten Tournament with momentum
Only two teams picked up multiple ranked wins this week: Texas, which defeated No. 23 Georgia and No. 24 Alabama, and Michigan, which managed to defeat No. 13 Ohio State and No. 14 Maryland.
These were important wins for the Wolverines, helping the team lock in the No. 2 seed in the Big Ten Tournament. The wins also improved the team's chance of landing a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament; it was eighth in Sunday's top 16 reveal from the committee, giving it the final No. 2 seed at the moment.
The wins also showed that the team's 18-point loss last week to Iowa, in which it was held to just 44 points, might not be the bad omen it looked like. That loss showcased everything we were worried about with Michigan, as it moved the Wolverines to 0-5 when scoring under 70 points. The offense came alive this week, though, and should quell some concerns. I'd still be worried, though, about Michigan against teams with elite inside games.
North Carolina is a threat in the ACC Tournament
It feels like we knew what the ACC was for a while. Throughout conference play, Louisville and Duke had established themselves as the clear top two teams, and there was a sizable gap back to the rest of the conference. However, both teams lost twice over the final two weeks of the regular season, opening the door for someone else to potentially make a run in the ACC Tournament.
That team might be North Carolina. The 25-6 Tarheels end the regular season on a four-game win streak and won 12 of their final 13 games, with only a four-point loss to Duke in there spoiling things. Three early ACC losses made it appear that UNC might be down in the muck of good-but-not-great ACC teams, but the final month and a half of the regular season showed this is, at worst, the clear third-best team in the conference.
Stat | ACC Rank Since Jan. 15 |
|---|---|
Net Rating | 2nd |
Offensive Rating | 4th |
Defensive Rating | 2nd |
UNC is the No. 3 seed in the ACC Tournament and will have a bye to the quarterfinals, setting up a potential chance to avenge an earlier loss to Louisville in the semifinals. Don't be surprised at all to see the Tar Heels make a run and come out of the ACC Tournament as champions, which would likely be enough to push the team up into one of the top 16 seeds, allowing them to play host to the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament.
Ole Miss has a rough week
Inconsistency strikes again for Ole Miss, as the Rebels lost twice to unranked teams to close out the regular season. The losses drop the team all the way down to the No. 7 seed in the SEC Tournament, potentially setting up a second-round rematch with a Texas A&M team that just beat Ole Miss.
It's been hard for me to really get a read on Ole Miss all season. Head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin put together a talented roster this season, mostly through the transfer portal, and the fact that most of these players hadn't played together before this season seemed to rear its head at times.
This was especially true down the stretch as the Rebels lost six of their final eight games, only beating Arkansas — one of the SEC's worst teams — and a collapsing Tennessee squad. The final two losses were to Florida and Texas A&M, two teams that have been playing solid basketball, but that also won't be in the NCAA Tournament barring a surprise SEC Tournament title.
If Colorado hadn't lost twice this week too, I'd have Ole Miss out of the Top 25 completely, but I think the voters probably won't be able to find a good replacement. Still, this team is trending down at the worst possible time to be trending down and doesn't look anything like the team that scored upset victories over Vanderbilt and Oklahoma earlier this season.